the written word
Entirely coincidentally, I've been writing a bunch of letters recently. Some to people for whom writing a letter is actually the best way to keep in touch with them, and some to people who I continue to be in touch with electronically on a much more frequent basis.
It's strange how writing a letter has affected my communications with those people I can more quickly and easily keep in touch with via email or instant messaging. In a way it reminds me of a situation one might expect to find in some sitcom, wherein one character leaves voicemail or something for another, then encounters said person before the voicemail is received, and the awkwardness of the situation causes hilarity to ensue, provided the writers of the show are good enough.
Anyhow, letters seem like if they were the only means of communication, they'd be just fine. There wouldn't be nearly as much room for error in terms of accidentally redacting what I say because if I must, I can always just wait for a full round of letters to complete before writing more. There is, I suppose, room for some confusion were I to write more letters to somebody before receiving a reply, though I think I've only been on the receiving end of that situation, not being the most prolific letter writer I know.
When you introduce email and instant messaging though, it gets tricky. I don't remember precisely what I said in all these written letters I sent and so I am a little more reluctant to continue other correspondence because I am too worried about possibly rendering myself incorrect or something like that. Worse still is that these people continue communicating to me electronically because I believe that for all of the letters I mailed out, I am the one initiating the written correspondence, and thus they are as of yet unaware.
Oh well, we shall see. Most of these should be pretty quick, and really, putting the rest of my communication on hold on account of these letters in limbo is foolish.
It's strange how writing a letter has affected my communications with those people I can more quickly and easily keep in touch with via email or instant messaging. In a way it reminds me of a situation one might expect to find in some sitcom, wherein one character leaves voicemail or something for another, then encounters said person before the voicemail is received, and the awkwardness of the situation causes hilarity to ensue, provided the writers of the show are good enough.
Anyhow, letters seem like if they were the only means of communication, they'd be just fine. There wouldn't be nearly as much room for error in terms of accidentally redacting what I say because if I must, I can always just wait for a full round of letters to complete before writing more. There is, I suppose, room for some confusion were I to write more letters to somebody before receiving a reply, though I think I've only been on the receiving end of that situation, not being the most prolific letter writer I know.
When you introduce email and instant messaging though, it gets tricky. I don't remember precisely what I said in all these written letters I sent and so I am a little more reluctant to continue other correspondence because I am too worried about possibly rendering myself incorrect or something like that. Worse still is that these people continue communicating to me electronically because I believe that for all of the letters I mailed out, I am the one initiating the written correspondence, and thus they are as of yet unaware.
Oh well, we shall see. Most of these should be pretty quick, and really, putting the rest of my communication on hold on account of these letters in limbo is foolish.
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